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Sunday, November 18, 2012

The
ancient land of Kerala has been a prominent place, since the dawn of time, among
seekers of the eternal truth. The famed Sabarimala, also known as Sri Dharmasastha,
is a Hindu pilgrimage center located on the slope of the Western Ghat mountain
ranges of Pathanamthitta District in Kerala. It is the largest annual
pilgrimage in world with an estimated 45–50 million devotees visiting every
year. Sabarimala is about 65 km from Pathanamthitta. The very famous Sabarimala
Ayyappa Temple is situated on Neelimala in the deep forests, on the banks of
River Pamba. The Temple is most famous and prominent among all the Sastha
Temples. All the men can visit this temple with out the consideration of caste,
creed, position or social status. Sabarimala Dharmasastha temple is one of most
visited temple in the entire India. The temple is open for worship only during
the days of Mandalapooja (approximately November 15 to December 26),
Makaravilakku (January 14- "Makara Sankranti") and Vishu (April 14),
and the first six days of each Malayalam month.

The
legend is that Lord Vishnu transformed himself into the woman form 'Mohini' to
get 'Amrith' from the Asuras, who took it away from the Devas. Lord Siva became
attracted to Mohini and thus born Hari Hara puthran with a bell round his neck.
So he was named 'Manikantan' by the Pandalam Raja, Rajshekhara Pandya who got
the baby from the jungles. Manikantan was born to kill the Asura woman Mahishi
who conquered the Heavens.

Manikantan
lived in the Pandalam Kingdom for some years before he killed Mahishi. He
befriended with Vavar, a Muslim warrior. Later Manikantan asked King of
Pandalam to build a temple for him at Sabarimala. Manikantan is at Sabarimala
temple at Lord Ayyappa. Idol of Ayyappa was carved by Parasurama and was
installed at the Sabarimala temple on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranthi.

The
temple attracts pilgrims not only from the southern states of Kerala, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh but also from other parts of country and
abroad. Sabarimala is one of the five 'panchashastha' temples erected by the
powerful yogi to protect Kerala from destructive elements, the others being
Kulathuppuzha, Aryankavu, Achankovil and Erumeli. At Kulathuppuzha, the Lord is
worshipped as an infant boy, at Aryankavu as an adolescent on the verge of
matrimony and at Achankovil, he is depicted as a 'grihasthashrami' with his
wives, Poorna and Pushkala.

Lord
Ayyappa Idol is in a brahmachari state of eternal bliss or Samadhi, holding
'chinmudra'. Sabarimala is believed to be the place where the Hindu God
Ayyappan meditated after killing the powerful demoness, Mahishi. Ayyappan’s
temple is situated here amidst eighteen hills. The temple is situated on a
hilltop at an altitude of 468 m (1535 ft) above mean sea level, and is
surrounded by mountains and dense forests. Temples exist in each of the hills
surrounding Sabarimala. While functional and intact temples exist at many
places in the surrounding areas like Nilackal, Kalaketi, and Karimala, remnants
of old temples survive to this day on remaining hills.

There
is a Vavar Thara very close to the temple. The deity is Vavar, the friend of
Ayyappa and a Sufi saint is at the close proximity to the main temple. Ayyapa
cult gifts much importance for secularism and communal harmony and has turned
out to be a model for the whole world. Another significant aspect of the
pilgrimage is that all the pilgrims whether rich or poor, literate or
illiterate are all equal before Lord Ayyapa and all of them address each other
as Ayyappa or Swamy.

To
enter the Sabarimala temple, the pilgrim has to pass Pathinettampadi (holy eighteen
steps). The holly eighteen steps that lead to the shrine have been figuratively
called Ponnu Pathinettampadi, 'Ponnu' being an epithet to denote the holy touch
of lord's feet. But now 'Ponnu' has become literally true because the steps
have been covered with Panchaloham. Each of these eighteen holy steps
represents a desire one must conquer in life, it is believed. Only those who
observe 41 day's of austerity as ritual can only carry erumudi and can climb
these steps.

Sabarimala
is linked to Hindu pilgrimage, predominantly for men of all ages. You can
identify a Sabarimala pilgrim easily as they wear black or blue dress. They do
not shave till the completion of pilgrimage and smear Vibhuti or Sandal paste
on their forehead. Women between the ages of 10 and 50 are not allowed to enter
the temple, since the story attributed to Ayyappa prohibits the entry of the
women in the menstrual age group. This is because Ayyappan is a Bramachari.

The
pilgrimage

The
devotees are expected to follow a vratham (41-day penance) prior to the
pilgrimage. This begins with wearing of a special Mala (a garland made of
Rudraksha or Tulsi beads). In general from then they are to refrain from
non-vegetarian food of any kind (except dairy) alcohol, and tobacco, engaging
in sex, using foul language, hair-cuts and shaving. They are expected to bath
twice and visit the local temples regularly and only wear plain black or blue
coloured traditional clothing. Saffron colored dresses are worn by Sanysis
(monks) who have renunciated material life. But, many devotees still continue
to wear saffron colored clothes which are against vedic scriptures due to
ignorance.

Hundreds
of devotees still follow the traditional mountainous forest path (approximately
52 km) from Erumely, believed to be taken by Ayyappa himself. The part starts
from Erumely to Aludha river, then crosses the Aludha mountain to reach
Karivilam thodu. Now comes the sacred Karimala crossing, from there to
Cheriyanavattom, Valliyanavattom and finally Pamba River. Then have claim
neeleemala and we enter into the ganesh bettam, shreeram betta padam. Aranmula
kottaram is one of the halt place of holy journey 'thiruvabharana khosayatra'.
But many people use vehicular traffic which can go till the Holy Pamba River by
an alternate road. Thereafter, all the pilgrims have to follow a mountainous
forest trekking path approximately four kilometers up a steep hill (Neeli Mala)
to Sabarimala. This path, now developed, with shops and medical aid by the
sides, used to be a mere trail through dense forest.

Historicity
of the Ayyappa Temple

There
is no clear evidence as to when the pilgrimage to Sabarimala began. After the
installation of the temple, it was mostly unreachable for about three
centuries. One of the kings in a later generation rediscovered the original
path to reach Sabarimala. He had many followers with him, including the
descendants of the Vavar family. They refreshed their resources at Erumely and
this marked the beginning of the famous Petta Thullal at Erumely. They laid
down their arms at the place today known as Saramkuthy. Those who are on their
maiden visits to Sabarimala thrust arrows at this place. The temple was then
renovated. In 1821 AD, the kingdom of Pandalam was added to Travancore. There
were added 48 other major temples including the Sabarimala temple to Travancore.
The idol was erected in 1910. In 1950, unidentified persons destroyed the
temple by breaking the 'Sri-kovil' and the main idol of worship, and set fire
to the temple. The temple also conflagrated in 1971 and underwent a major
revamping.

The
history behind the worshipping methods

The
customs of the pilgrims to Sabarimala are based on five worshipping methods;
those of Shaivites, Shaktists and Vaishnavites. At first, there were three
sections of devotees – the devotees of Shakti who used meat, liquor and drugs
to worship their deity, the devotees of Vishnu who followed strict penance and
continence, and the devotees of Shiva who partly followed these two methods.
Another name of Ayyappa is Sastha. All these can be seen merged into the
beliefs of pilgrims to Sabarimala. The chain the pilgrims wear comes from the
Rudraksha chain of the Shaivites. The strict fasting, penance and continence is
taken out of the beliefs of the Vaishnavites. The offering of tobacco to
Kaduthaswamy can be considered to be taken from the Shaktists.

Reaching
Sabarimala

The
Ayyappa temple on Sabarimala lies 184 km away from the international airport in
the Kerala's capital city of Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum). Similarly, it is
214 km from Kochi (formerly Cochin) International Airport. The nearest railway
stations to Sabarimala are at Kottayam and Chengannur.

The
easiest route is via Chalakkayam, by which one can reach the banks of the river
Pamba by vehicle. Pamba is the main halting point on the way to Sabarimala.
From here one has to trek 4 to 5 kms to reach the temple.